Tandemploy receives seven-figure sum

No room for a man: the Berlin start-up Tandemploy has been able to attract five well-known female investors from the business world for a seven-figure sum. It's an "all-female deal", as they call it themselves. And a conscious decision.

An all-female group of investors for a start-up run by women: unfortunately, this is a peculiarity in the male-dominated start-up scene. The two female founders of the software company Tandemploy were able to attract five female investors in a new round of financing. The exact amount is not known, but it is a seven-figure figure. "We feel we are now in a strong position. Of course, I don't want to rule out larger growth financing in the medium term," says Jana Tepe, one of the founders, to the Handelsblatt.

There was a great deal of interest and the all-female round was deliberately chosen by Tandemploy: "We made a very conscious decision to choose women as investors this time in order to set an example," Tepe told Handelsblatt. The five final investors include Stephanie Bschorr, for example, who is a partner at the auditing firm HTG and former President of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs (VdU). Angelika Gifford, Vice President of Facebook's European business, and Elke Eller, Board Member and Labor Director at TUI, are also involved. Does the start-up now only rely on women? No, say the founders - diversity is important to them at all levels. But it is a step they are taking to encourage imitators: "The all-female deal was the first - but certainly not the last in the tech scene," says Anna Kaiser, the second founder.

Since 2013, the start-up has become a successful provider of remote working software under the leadership of Tepe and Kaiser. An idea that fits perfectly in times of the New Work movement and digitalization due to the coronavirus pandemic. This has allowed the start-up to grow enormously over the past year: "And we want to do it again in 2021 - especially abroad - and make a profit for the first time," says Tepe. Tandemploy's customers include companies such as SAP, Lufthansa and Evonik. In total, employees in 58 countries and 276 cities use the service.